To the chief Musician, A Psalm of David, the servant of the Lord, who spake unto the Lord the words of this song in the day that the Lord delivered him from the hand of all his enemies, and from the hand of Saul: And he said,

1I will love thee, O Lord, my strength.

2The Lordis my rock, and my fortress, and my deliverer;

my God, my strength, in whom I will trust;

my buckler, and the horn of my salvation, and my high tower.

3I will call upon the Lord, who is worthy to be praised:

so shall I be saved from mine enemies.

4The sorrows of death compassed me,

and the floods of ungodly men made me afraid.

5The sorrows of hell#18.5 hell, Hebrew Sheol. compassed me about:

the snares of death prevented me.

6In my distress I called upon the Lord,

and cried unto my God:

he heard my voice out of his temple,

and my cry came before him, even into his ears.

7Then the earth shook and trembled;

the foundations also of the hills moved

and were shaken, because he was wroth.

8There went up a smoke out of his nostrils,

and fire out of his mouth devoured:

coals were kindled by it.

9He bowed the heavens also, and came down:

and darkness was under his feet.

10And he rode upon a cherub, and did fly:

yea, he did fly upon the wings of the wind.

11He made darkness his secret place;

his pavilion round about him were dark waters and thick clouds of the skies.

12At the brightness that was before him his thick clouds passed,

hail stones and coals of fire.

13The Lord also thundered in the heavens,

and the Highest gave his voice;

hail stones and coals of fire.

14Yea, he sent out his arrows, and scattered them;

and he shot out lightnings, and discomfited them.

15Then the channels of waters were seen,

and the foundations of the world were discovered

at thy rebuke, O Lord,

at the blast of the breath of thy nostrils.

16He sent from above, he took me,

he drew me out of many waters.

17He delivered me from my strong enemy,

and from them which hated me:

for they were too strong for me.

18They prevented me in the day of my calamity:

but the Lord was my stay.

19He brought me forth also into a large place;

he delivered me, because he delighted in me.

20The Lord rewarded me according to my righteousness;

according to the cleanness of my hands hath he recompensed me.

21For I have kept the ways of the Lord,

and have not wickedly departed from my God.

22For all his judgments were before me,

and I did not put away his statutes from me.

23I was also upright before him,

and I kept myself from mine iniquity.

24Therefore hath the Lord recompensed me according to my righteousness,